As Occupational Therapists we are often asked about the link between fine motor skills and “messy play”. If you have been to one of our GAP Groups, or another baby stimulation group, you would have had loads of fun exploring messy play. As a caregiver you know it’s important to give your little one opportunities to get messy, but do you know why?

Why messy play is so important:

There are many touch receptors jammed into the small area of your baby’s hands. These receptors give information on what textures are being touched as well as what temperature the object or surface is. Your little one’s touch system will also interpret whether it’s a pleasant touch sensation or not. Most baby’s will love messy play and you will be wiping yoghurt, jelly and marmite off their hands and faces often!

Offering them a variety of consistency, texture and temperature to explore with their hands will allow their touch receptors to distinguish between mooshy, firm, warm, cold, rough and smooth textures. This will allow them to gauge how to adjust their grip when holding different objects.

As the feedback from their touch receptors improves, they will be able to isolate each finger better. The first finger they learn to isolate is usually their index finger. This will allow them to point. Following pointing, your clever baby will then learn to isolate his thumb together with his index finger. This will enable him to use a pincer grasp to pick up small objects (e.g. peas, buttons, raisins).

You may find that when he is still refining this skill, he will press his fingers together very tightly and may squeeze the object right out of his grasp or squash it!  This ability to distinguish between touch sensations and accurately gauge the force required for the grip will help him later as he needs to hold a crayon, scissors or paintbrush. There are many tasks that require finger dexterity, for example threading beads, peg games, picking up puzzle pieces, pegboard games, peeling and placing stickers. All these skills start with touch exploration. 

Tips for including messy play in your day:

1.) Join a GAP group – these weekly groups will give your little the opportunity to engage in some messy play, meet other families and avoid having to clean up in your home!

2.) Use a Nurture One Fuss Free Bib – this will help to make clean up easier. This bib washes and dries quickly and easily and protects your little one’s clothes.

3.) Get messy in the bathtub, shower or outside – this also makes clean up easier and contains the mess.

4.) Messy mealtimes – chop up finger foods to give your baby some extra practice, but make sure the pieces are not too small otherwise he will get frustrated and give up. Yoghurt, custard, apple sauce  and cottage cheese can also be fun messy touch experiences. Allow your baby to play and mess, refrain from cleaning and wiping during the activity – do this at the end.

5.) “Clean” mess – bath time is a great way to include cleaner textures. You can put coloured ice blocks into the tub, squirt shaving foam on the surface of the bath or the water, have fun with bath paints or crayons.

6.) Texture box – find a box/basket and fill it with different textures (e.g. scraps of material, sponges, spikes hair curlers, string of beads, pine cones, metal spoon/cup, feathers, make up brushes, paint rollers etc.). Allow your baby to take out the objects and explore them and you can wipe them on their hands and feet. Make sure you don’t leave your little one unattended with these objects.

To find out more about these and loads of other messy play activities, take a look at our book Groovy Adventures: How to encourage your baby to move from one developmental milestone to the next while having a blast!

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Children love new and different toys. Sometimes this is just what we need to maintain their interest in a fine motor task long enough for them to build up endurance in their little hand and finger muscles. That’s why both in our Occupational Therapy rooms and in our Happy Handwriter fine motor Muscle Mania groups we love using these wacky wikki stix! These new sticky strings never cease to get the most reluctant child to engage in our fine motor task.

What OT goals can we meet with these wikki stix?

Not only do we love seeing how their two hands work together to manipulate these sticky stix, but we also love the pressure they need to apply to get them to stick! Both bilateral integration (the two hands working together) and fine motor strength and endurance are popular goals with our little ones. Goals we can achieve with the help of our sticky stix!

We also use these wikki stix to make handwriting multisensory. Out with boring pencil and paper and in with wikki stix and acetate sheets! By placing the acetate sheet over the letter or number, we provide an accurate map. This way your little one can learn to form their letters and numbers, as the Happy Handwriter always says, “the right way the first time”.  Handwriting has never been so sticky and wacky and FUN!

We can even achieve some visual perceptual OT goals by letting them find their way through a 2D maze worksheet using the wiki stix. This is way more fun than drawing their pathway through the maze. Improving figure-ground perception (the ability to focus on a specific object in a busy background, important for reading) has never been less boring. Less 2D and more sensory!

But what the children love best is developing their motor planning skills (important for work pace and task completion in the classroom) by coming up with creative new ideas of how to bend, twist, plait and shape their sticky stix into whatever their mind can imagine! And what is the cherry on the top – they are re-usable for hours and hours of fun!

Get yours here: https://www.jumpleapfly.co.za/product/a-wikki-stix-bundle/

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Toddlers are known to be very busy creatures! Getting them to slow down, look and share attention with you can be a challenge. While it may seem easier to let them occupy themselves and bounce from one activity to another, it is important for learning and future relationships to engage meaningfully with them. Teaching your little one to look at you, use non-verbal gestures like pointing and actively listen will help them to communicate better with others.

Some little ones seem to engage more naturally and don’t need much intentional prompting from an adult, while others are happy to be in their own little world and need help to actively play with others. So how can you, as an adult, draw your child out of their solitary play and entice him to enjoy the give and take of playing with others? As occupational therapists and experts on play, we share some of our best pointers to get you started:

1. pointing – encouraging your little one to point while looking at books or birds flying overhead will illicit shared attention and engagement. If he struggles to isolate his pointing finger, you could gently roll and tug along his finger from the base to the tip with your fingers, like a massage. Also try activities to isolate this finger such as finger painting, poking holes into playdough or planting seeds in the garden by poking holes for them.

2. reading – carve out some time to read at least 2 books a day with your little one. If his attention span is short you don’t have to read each word – rather focus on the pictures and choose books with actions he can do. Read his favourites over and over and see if he can remember the story and “read” it to you.

3. child-led play – imitate what your little one is doing by getting down onto the floor with her and copying the actions, sounds, facial expressions and activities she is doing. If your little one struggles to get started with this you can bring in a few favourite objects and see what she does (e.g. a ball, doll, teddy, mixing bowl and spoon).

4. requesting – many in tune caregivers know what their child wants before she has asked for it. It is important to “play dumb” and create the need for her to actively ask for what she wants. This could be gesturing (e.g. pointing or signing) or using language (e.g. saying “more juice”). You can model how to do this in the beginning if you need to. Look for opportunities during activities for your child to request, for example when colouring you could show her 2 colours and she can request the one she wants to use.

5. waiting for a response – young children in particular take a little time to process information. As adults we often expect them to gather, process and respond as fast as we do. Try to slow down a little and allow your child time to process and decide on a response. If you ask a question give him time to reply (count to 10 in your head if you have to!), if you request a choice from her give her a moment to pick an option, if he is hesitant to start an activity allow him a pause to decide where he wants to begin.

6. eye contact – this is such an important part of engaging with others. Show your child that he has your full attention by giving him eye contact from your side and then ask for his eye contact when he is responding to you. To encourage this you can wait for him to look at you when he is awaiting your response before answering him, gently guide his head up so that he is looking at your face, call his name or ask him to look at you before giving him a response or requesting something from him.

The seemingly “good” child who is easy to manage due to being able to play quietly on their own can seem very convenient, but needs our help to draw them out into meaningful play with others. Relationship is our ultimate goal, which can facilitate friendships, form the basis for learning and create self confidence from which your little one can engage with his world and those around him. Regular short periods of time throughout the day where you as a caregiver, intentionally engage and purposefully connect with your little one will go a long way in helping him on the playground, in class and with his family.

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In today’s rushed and digital era it is easy to miss opportune moments to strengthen this bond. We may be rushing from one activity to another, trying to multitask or distracted by an email as we try to work from home. This is why we have to be purposeful in order to ensure that this connection is secure.

Feeding is an opportune time where this bonding and attachment happens most naturally. As the baby feeds and gazes into their caregivers eyes, they are perfectly positioned on a sensory and neurological level to grow this attachment. Most often Mom is the one feeding her baby and thus inherently benefits more consistently from this magical attachment activity. This can leave Dad feeling less of a bond initially with his baby. Often this bond strengthens with Dad when a new sibling arrives, forcing Mom to be less available as she cares for the new baby. This gives Dad some focused opportunities to bond with his child. However, there is no need to wait for a new sibling to strengthen your baby’s attachment to significant others, you can start from the very beginning. Strong early attachment bonds have been proven to impact positively on future relationships and emotional well being.

Tips for strengthening attachment from the start:
1. skin-to-skin – make sure to spend some time daily with your baby in just their nappy and lying directly on your chest (their skin to your skin). Anyone can do this – not just Mom!

2. eye contact – be intentionally present when feeding, changing, bathing or singing to your baby. Try not to be distracted by others, screens or background noise. Try to position yourself approximately 30cm from your baby’s face as this is the best distance for them to focus on you.

3. contrasting colours – babies are able to focus on strong contrasts the easiest. You can wear make-up to contrast your eyes and lips or wear solid, bold coloured clothing which contrasts with your background.

4. co-sleeping – newborn babies do not form habits for the first few months, so co-sleeping during this time can have lovely attachment benefits without the fear of forming these sleep habits. You can co-sleep or rest with your baby during their nap time, it does not need to be all night.

5. peek-a-boo – there is a reason why babies love this game so much. It is because by playing this game they are learning that their caregiver is always there, even when baby can’t see them. In this way babies develop form constancy (knowing an object or person is there, even when it is out of sight), which helps them not to be anxious when they are separated from their caregiver for a short period of time. This trust that their caregiver will come back does wonders for bonding and attachment.

6. purposeful time – taking daily pockets of time to stop everything and focus solely on engaging with your little one (without background noise or other distractions) will grow this attachment bond. You could try cooing or imitating facial expressions (e.g. puckering lips or sticking your tongue out) and waiting for your baby to similarly respond. For the slightly older baby you could have fun with hand clapping games, nursery rhymes or action songs.

7. attachment object – many babies will attach to an object that smells familiar (like mom, dad, granny). You could try sleeping with one of their receiving blankets or a taglet. Then give this to them when they are sleepy, upset or away from you for a time. Babies sense of smell is stronger than adults’ and thus you should be careful not to overstimulate them with strong perfumes.

Just like we all have different personalities, we also all have different sensory needs and preferences. Some babies can tolerate a lot of attachment and bonding activities in their day while other babies become easily overwhelmed with too much. The best way to know what your baby needs is to watch their signs. Follow your baby’s lead and watch for cues that he has had enough. He may look away from you, yawn, hold up his hands in front of him, suck on his fingers more, start to hiccup, arch his back or give you a little frown. You don’t need to spend one long period in the day bonding with your baby, shorter more frequent periods throughout the day can be just as valuable. Happy bonding!

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To better understand how to tackle Motor Planning difficulties, we need to first look at its roots. In our Groovy Adventurers Book (https://www.jumpleapfly.co.za/groovy-adventurer-book/), we use a tree to explain development.

A tree needs firm roots in order for the trunk and branches to be strong and to bear fruit. Similarly, in development, foundational root skills need to mature before more complex trunk and branch skills can improve (which are the skills we see at home and in the classroom). Praxis or Motor Planning is a trunk skill, which is necessary for the fruit skills of task completion and work pace in the classroom. For example, a child who is sensitive to movement and feels insecure when their feet leave the floor, will not develop that inner GPS of where their body is in space and how it is moving. Without this awareness of the two sides of their body, they may not be able to use subtle postural adjustments to smoothly execute their motor plans.

Now that we know how Motor Planning develops – from Root to Fruit, we can start having fun at every level to help our children mature in this area. By starting at the root level, we can make sure they have firm foundations to build on as the demands of tasks become more complex. Let’s take a look at some ideas for activities you can do at each level:

Root Activities:
– 3 blind mice – work with your child to create an obstacle course. Try let him come up with his own ideas by asking him leading and prompting questions, e.g. “what can we do with this chair?” or “how can this table be part of this obstacle course?” Use your chairs, tables, cushions, laundry baskets etc. to create obstacles your little one can crawl under, through, over and crash onto. Let them pack out the obstacle course as independently as possible. Have them test the obstacle course out. Now use a blindfold and see if the blind mouse can find his way through the maze without his eyes helping him! He will have to rely on his sense of touch and body senses to feel his way through the obstacle course!

Trunk Activities:
Ribbon peg race – tie a length of ribbon to the top of a chair. Ask your child to sit on the floor about 30cm away from the chair and holding the other end of the ribbon. Start with 10 to 15 pegs and have a race to see how quickly he can peg the pegs onto the ribbon, by alternating attaching each peg to the opposite side of the ribbon (like zip teeth). He will need to remain seated and use both hands in order to complete the task. If the ribbon is not taut he will not be able to attach the pegs quickly. This activity requires bilateral integration (the coordinated use of two sides of the body). You can race against your child or see if he can beat his time on the next round using a stop watch.

Branch Activities:
Getting unstuck – take a trip to to the local park where there is a jungle gym. Have a long ribbon, rope or string handy. Tie one end of the string to the jungle gym and then wrap and wind it around different parts of the jungle gym – you can make it very easy with just a few twists and turns or make it more tricky with loads of tangles! Now tie the other end to your child’s waist and see if he can untangle himself! You can bring pretend play or imaginary play into it by pretending he has been captured and is freeing himself!

Fruit Activities:
Quack-Quacks – what do you call these fun cutting, folding and playing crafts? We call them Quack-Quacks and most children love making and playing with them and we love the folding, bilateral hand skills and planning needed for this task. We love these variations from the lovely ladies at the Spruce Crafts – thanks for the inspiration ladies! (https://www.thesprucecrafts.com/make-these-creative-cootie-catchers-4149965 ) More recently in our OT sessions we have enjoyed a Harry Potter Quack-Quack to figure out which house the children would be in if they attended Hogwarts! Thanks to Getawaytoday for the free printable click here to get yours: https://www.getawaytoday.com/travel-blog/harry-potter-origami-sorting-hat-free-printable

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Motor planning or praxis is the ability to come up with an idea, plan and then smoothly execute the idea as a movement. It is important to distinguish between cognitive planning (a process that happens mostly on a brain level) and motor planning (which happens on a body level). Many children are very creative and have fantastic ideas but struggle to get these ideas to translate into action. For example, cognitive planning would be making a mental list of what you may need to make supper this evening and motor planning would be used when you learn a new skill, such as learning to ride a bicycle or drive a car. As adults we don’t tend to motor plan a lot because activities have become more automatic for us. For children, however, who learn new skills every day, motor planning forms a big part of their development. 

Just as some adults learn how to drive a car easily, showing good praxis, others will take longer to learn this skill. It is the same with children. Some children will be able to run up to a jungle gym and seem to have ideas of how to navigate their way around the obstacles without thinking, others watch first and are slower to take action. Having good praxis skills as a child is not only linked to outdoor play. Children who struggle in this area also display a slower work pace in the classroom, tend to talk through tasks rather than simply executing them and watch others around them to help them get started on school tasks. All this leads to them struggling to complete tasks on time. 

Children with motor planning difficulties use more mental energy and cognitive planning to compensate for inadequate praxis skills. This can be tiring and frustrating as they try to keep up with their classmates and the pace in the classroom. Have you noticed this tendency in your home or classroom? We would love to hear your thoughts on why you think this is and what you are seeing and experiencing as parents, teachers and therapists. Watch this space next week for some tips and strategies to help your children improve this important skill.

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I did some research as a mom to truly understand and found this article that I would like to share with you:
Heritage Day – Why do we celebrate it? Jayshree Sita

Below I share her story as well as 2 things we can do on this Heritage Day with our kids to explain the concept and create lovely memories!

“The purpose of Heritage Day is to expose people to the differences, to enable us to understand, respect and appreciate other cultures. Everyone has their unique culture and identity.

Heritage Day gives us an opportunity to learn and grow which is so much more valuable. There are positive things in every culture. If we can adopt or even just accept what is good in other cultures, we will grow as individuals and contribute to a more unified South Africa. This exposure helps us to open our minds and be comfortable that there are so many ways to learn and live. But it’s also a time for an individual to try to learn more about their own culture. What are the values and traditions that it embraces? Do those values and traditions make sense to you? If you are aware of your own culture and believe in its values, you will be able to share it with others.

So I would really recommend that each of us do two things on Heritage Day:

1. Try to find things which are meaningful in your own culture and share it with others.
2. Learn something about another culture.”

Thank you Jayshree Sita for this lovely blog post!

I look forward spending this Heritage Day with my own children, exploring our own culture and learn more about others!

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The below diagram of a tree may help you to visualise what is happening with your little one’s development. It is important that, just like a tree, the “root” (or foundation) skills need to be watered and developed first so that the rest of the tree can grow healthy and strong. These sensory systems (touch, smell, taste, hearing, sight, movement and body position sense) are the basis of all other development and require constant input as your amazing baby grows and develops. As we move up the trunk of the tree (postural security, awareness of two sides of the body, motor planning, body scheme and reflex maturity) the development of the skills becomes slightly more complex. If there are strong, healthy roots, then the trunk skills will have a stable base to build on and should develop with opportunity and practice. The branches (ocular motor control, eye-hand coordination, attention, auditory and language, visual perception, spatial perception and postural adjustment) are the next level of development and can only progress well when built on the strong roots and trunk skills of the tree. The final stage is the fruit of the tree (self care tasks, behaviour and academic learning) and these are the skills your child is measured and tested on. They are the product of all that’s below them. Just as a tree that is not watered has shallow roots or an unhealthy trunk that will not bear fruit, so too a child that does not have strong foundational skills will not be able to attain the more complex academic, social and emotional skills expected of them. For example, maturity of the touch system (root level) enables better motor planning ability (being able to plan and execute a purposeful movement) which is a trunk skill. This is important for eye-hand coordination (a branch) which in turn enables the development of writing skills for academic learning (fruit). In other words, input at the root level can have an impact all the way up the tree to the fruit.

Making sure you spend some time each day providing Sensory Play opportunities for your baby/toddler will help them to form firm foundations on which to build more complex skills as they grow and develop.

Play is your child’s “work” and it is the way he learns best. JumpLeapFly will be hosting a one day workshop together with Training for Life which will cover both Sensory Play as well as Baby/Toddler CPR and First Aid – the PlaySafe Workshop. This will be an interactive workshop with loads of sensory activity ideas for you to do at home with your little one. Presented by professionals in these fields you will also have the opportunity to ask questions and try out many of the practical aspects of the workshop. We would love you to join us! Please visit www.FaceBook.com/JumpLeapFly for more information and to book for the next workshop.

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• feed your child before you get there – most babies, toddlers and even older children do not eat well when there are so many other interesting activities distracting them, and of course their food choices may gravitate towards the sugar laden treats! Feed them at home or, if they can manage it, pack an exciting on-the-go lunchbox for the car trip there.
• make sure they drink plenty of water – take their own water bottle along and encourage them to drink often. With so much fun going on they may miss their own bodies signals that they are thirsty.
• dress them in comfortable clothes – cute party dresses and little shirts make for amazing photos, but being uncomfortable or unable to move freely can be very frustrating for your child. The build up of this over the course of the day can push your little one over into meltdown as their sensory systems are already taking in and trying to manage more than usual during parties especially.
• have a few breaks in between  – depending on your child’s sensory personality and their age, take some breaks from all the busyness of the outing. You could go for a short walk to a quieter part of the park or party area, perhaps hunt for some bugs or look for different types of birds. Putting a baby in a baby carrier and going for a walk may result in your little one getting a much needed nap before rejoining everyone again.
• use some sensory-smart tools – deep hugs and squeezes are calming while tickly or light touch will have the opposite effect. Being pushed and bumped constantly can be very overwhelming for some little ones and simply moving them to the edge of the activity, doing it with them or taking a break now and then can help to temper some of these intense feelings. Chewing crunchy foods and sucking are also very calming for your child’s sensory system, so help them pick some snack items accordingly.
• leave before the wheels fall off! – most of us know the limits of what our children can manage, according to their sensory personalities. Pay attention to reading the subtle cues your little one gives you and make plans to leave before they are unable to manage their responses and they are heading towards meltdown. These cues may be as simple as yawning, staring off into space or being more clingy than usual. They may also be unable to share space with other children so easily or you find they are not able to focus enough to follow simple instructions.
• most importantly…have fun! –  when you are relaxed and having fun your children tend to follow your example.

We wish you all loads of exciting outings in the days and weeks to come. Please share with us all your favourite outing destination. There must be so many we haven’t tried yet!

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